


little lives

by jasondont (minigami)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Republic Commando Series - Karen Traviss, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:26:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24986773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minigami/pseuds/jasondont
Summary: Their ship is on the spaceport, and they’ve got what they came for: they should leave before anyone realises who they actually are.
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi
Comments: 3
Kudos: 130





	little lives

**Author's Note:**

> i know what happens with the cure (more or less) in the republic commando books but i have only read the first one and part of the second, so i probably got something wrong. sorry! (i do know i don't like skirata much though, but that might have been the kt's fault.)
> 
> so let's say someone (probably the bad batch and/or rex) finds cody a few years after the fall of the republic, and he eventually finds himself first at obi-wan's side and then in his bed.

The insides of the room smell musty, the air dry and hot. It’s dark, the light of the neons beyond the hostel filtering through the lowered blinds and painting the dirty floor in changing bright colours. Red and blue, green and hot pink. It reminds Cody of Coruscant, not like it is now, but like it used to be. Busy and dirty and alive, on the fun side of dangerous, full of wonders even for the clonetroopers.  
When he left, Obi-Wan was sleeping, but now he is not. He’s sitting on the narrow bed, his legs folded under himself and left, pale hand on his left knee. The other hand is still held by the makeshift bandage that keeps his arm close to his chest. 

He opens his eyes. The white light of the empty hallway at Cody’s back finds itself reflected in his blue-grey eyes, open but unseeing. He doesn’t even blink---the air around him is too warm, denser than it should. He must have gone deep.   
Cody sighs, the noise disturbing through his helmet’s modulator. He closes the door at his back and blinks. The room appears as a series of green and pale mounds in front of him---Ben, formerly known as Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, looks perfectly unremarkable in his spacer clothes. Cody takes off his helmet before turning on the small lamp over the single bed. The sudden clarity makes him blink, but the light is dim enough his eyes do not need much time to get used to it. 

He hears the sound of Obi-Wan’s tunic rustling against the bed before his hand grabs Cody’s wrist. He doesn’t jump, but it’s a close thing. Obi-Wan tightens his fingers so that Cody can feel it through his armor, a silent apology.  
Cody sighs again and turns to look at him. 

Obi-Wan looks better. Tired, yes, but less than six hours ago. There are dark circles under his eyes, and his hair looks mussed, the auburn and grey strands undistinguishable in the low light. 

Cody would like to touch him very much, but. Not yet. Obi-Wan smiles, obviously reading the desire on his face and in the Force and because he is a condescending bastard, and Cody rolls his eyes, lightly pushes his uninjured shoulder with his free hand.

“It went well,” he says, low in the quiet room. He can hear the sounds of a couple arguing in the room next to theirs, two female voices screaming at each other in a mix of Huttese and Basic. “How are you feeling?”  
Obi-Wan tugs on his arm until Cody gives in and sits down next to him on the bed, armour and all.   
“I’m fine,” is Obi-Wan’s only answer. Cody looks at him, brows arched.  
“Really.”   
“Yes.” 

Two blaster shots, one on the arm, the other one on his chest, thankfully on armour. A fractured rib. A bump the side of an egg on his head. 

But he’s fine.

Cody clenches his jaw and decides to let it go---for the moment. He leans on the wall at his back and closes his eyes for a second. He can feel Obi-Wan’s warmth at his right, even through his armour. He’s a solid weight, heavy, unmovable.   
The other man grabs him once again by the wrist, but this time he finds the seam between glove and gauntlet and vambrace and fits his long fingers inside, against the vein. Another silent apology.

“How was our friend?” As always, Obi-Wan’s the one to break the silence. Cody shrugs, his eyes still closed. He’s been tense for hours. Tatooine and the Rim are bad, but in some aspects it gets worse the closer you get to the Core. It's been just four years, but the new stormtroopers are everywhere.  
“Like always,” is his only answer. Obi-Wan snorts. He knows Cody never liked Skirata and his boys. “Cagey and superior and seconds away from either shanking me or putting a bolt between my eyes or leaving with… well.”   
“Did he recognize you?”   
Cody shakes his head. Whoever it was, he knew he was a brother, but not which one. Cody doesn’t think he cared.  
“I didn’t recognise him either. Don’t think he was a Null, though.”

Obi-Wan hums. His shoulder knocks against Cody’s, thinner but heavy, solid. He’s gained some weight and muscle mass since they first found each other. And Cody doesn’t want to think it’s because of him, that it’s his influence, because he knows perfectly well he should know better, but. He can’t help it. He didn’t always worry, but once he started, he never learned how to stop.  
“May I see it?” Obi-Wan says suddenly. Cody doesn’t need to ask what he’s talking about. With fingers that do not shake, he reaches inside his belt and takes out one of the vials. The Jedi takes it off his palm with careful fingers and then raises it until the light of the lamp hits the glass, examining it. Cody wonders what he sees. 

Such a small thing, but. If it works. If Mereel Skirata is as smart, as clever, as he thinks he is. Well.  
He once thought it didn’t matter---they had been bred to fight and kill and die, and so what if they’d die before they turned forty. But now… well. Things are different. 

His hair has grown over and around the scar the chip left, curly and thick and still dark. He can still feel it through his glove when he raises his hand, a nervous tick he can’t seem to drop. Cody’s aware of Obi-Wan’s eyes on him, but he doesn’t stop. He finds the scar and then he prods and pushes until it hurts: he makes sure it’s there.   
“We’ll get it to Fulcrum’s people,” Obi-Wan says, his voice quiet. He cradles the vial in his free hand as if it were something precious. “And then… well.”  
They were told it doesn’t always work, but Cody doesn’t know of any brother who won’t risk a swift death for a chance at a long life.   
“It’ll work,” Cody says. He then sighs. “If we manage to get out of here, of course.”  
“Oh, we’ll be fine,” Obi-Wan answers, his voice airy; Cody snorts. When he hands him the vial Cody takes it, puts it back with its brothers in his belt. Half a dozen and a spare, more than enough for Organa’s scientists to synthesize enough for all the _vode_ they find.  
Obi-Wan’s fingers return to his favourite place, to his wrist, to the warm fragile skin under his new-old armour. Beskar is not so different to his Phase II shell, just… older and heavier and tougher. He hasn’t managed to find enough material to make himself a whole suit but he knows that he will, that it’s just a question of when, not of if.   
Even then, he sometimes finds himself missing the old orange and white. He wonders if Obi-Wan does, as well.

When he turns his head, the Jedi is already looking at him. His eyes glitter in the darkness, and he’s smiling, knowing and full of want but still slightly bashful, almost shy. Cody softly frees himself of his grasp and raises his hand, puts it on Obi-Wan’s face, strokes one sharp cheekbone with his thumb. Obi-Wan blinks, slowly, like a cat, and tilts his head, leans on Cody’s hand.

Their ship is on the spaceport, and they’ve got what they came for: they should leave before anyone realises who they actually are.

“Did you intend to sleep in your armour, my dear?”  
Cody is already kissing him.   
“No,” he answers. He can feel Obi-Wan smile. 


End file.
